One of Those Deep Notes

So I'm listening to the radio today at work, first song I hear when I turn it on is Tim McGraw's "Live Like You Were Dying" followed immediately by Kenny Chesney's "Don't Blink", that was followed by AC/DC's "Back in Black" but that doesn't really have anything to do with the rest of this.

And those songs got me to thinking, which I'm sure was their original point, so congratulations to the writers of those songs. Throughout my life, and I'm sure this applies to many others out there too, I have always tended to focus on temporary stuff, stuff that really doesn't matter in the long run and stuff that I'm not super proud of.

Then I was thinking about why I did these things or focus on these things, the answer, I thought it would bring me happiness. I was under the impression that whatever it was, was going to make my life better, only to be left with regrets and guilt afterward. None of these things bring that everlasting happiness that so many of us are searching for. They only give us that temporary pleasure, with a feeling of depression afterward, which causes many of us to go back to that temporary pleasure, only for that depression to return, creating this vicious cycle that so many in this world get themselves trapped in.

Life is so much more than these things and we are letting those things that truly matter just pass us by. We need to be going after that everlasting happiness, that true happiness, something that offers true life fulfillment. You maybe thinking, "Adam, where can I find this true happiness?" and the others are thinking, "Adam, I know where you're going with this."

Psalms 146:5 Happy is he who's hope is in the Lord his God
Job 8:21 He will fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with joyful shouting.

I could probably go on and on with more verses, but I won't. God gives and everlasting happiness, not something temporary or that will leave you feeling regretful or empty inside afterward. So just remember, put your hope and happiness in the Lord.

Sticking to the Liberals

I was reading through foxnews.com today. (yes I read the news) And I came about this awesome article.

MOUNT VERNON, Ohio — An Ohio middle school teacher says he won't obey an order to remove a Bible from view of students.

John Freshwater said Wednesday he agreed to remove a collage from his classroom that included the Ten Commandments, but that asking him to remove the Bible on his desk goes too far.

Officials with the Mount Vernon School District say they don't oppose religion but are required by the U.S. Constitution not to promote or favor any set of religious beliefs.

Freshwater says being forced to keep the Bible out of sight would infringe on his rights.

Mount Vernon is about 40 miles northeast of Columbus.

*This guy is one of my hero's now. I'm sick of every freedom of expression in the world being allowed except the Bible and Christianity. Students can put demonic crap on their clothes and their binders, people can preach evolution (people who believe this are some of the dumbest on earth), and so on.

-side note: This is why kids are so messed up and lacking morals today. It's not the kids faults, it's all the adults out there who have shut the door to God in our society today.

*While on the other hand the one's getting harassed are the ones with the Bibles, the ones teaching Creationism, the ones who put Christian symbols in their artwork. This freedom of expression is a two way street.

Way To Long

Ok, it's been way to long since I've posted on here. I don't really know how many people actually read this but just in case, I apologize.

Right now things are really busy. I'm prepping for the summer calendar and I have a lot of good ideas. I can't wait for this summer, I'm really excited about getting it going and I'm hoping the kids like what I have planned. I'm not going to post yet what I have planned, I'm saving that for the summer kickoff on May 18th.

With things really picking up I'll have some interesting stuff to post, so I should be able to keep up with it.

I Hope My House Doesn't Blow Up and more

The following comment is pretty much an exact quote to something I heard on the news this morning. It's concerning the U.S. spy satellite that is currently falling at 18,000 MPH toward the earth.

"The US spy satellite is currently projected to land on earth in late Feb. or early March. There isn't much to be worried about though. The earth is 75% water so you only have a 1 in 4 shot of it hitting where you live."

Wow! Obviously it's a lot more than 1 in 4 of it hitting your home, but still, if it was 1 in 4 I still wouldn't feel safe.

This was a fun weekend, got to hang out, made a trip to Stillwater and did some Cosmic Bowling on Saturday night.

Sunday was a bit sad, I didn't know exactly what to do with no football on.

A Little of This and A Little of That

Here are some high-lights from Winterfest from the rest of the group

Abbey Lyle
"you go back to your room."
"you don't even KNOW about trains!"
"you know what? that hurts"
"don't come back til you have juice AND towels"
"you got on my nerves 4 hours ago."

Morgan Warlick
Winterfest was so much fun! I'm just sad it was my last one!...ok um. jellybellies are NOT awesome."your a dirty trashcan full of poop"and ditto what abbitha said.
Matt Thomas
does he got juice?! Actually this is a stairwell

Jake Casteel
lol, i loved it allget back to your room tim!surfs up

Tim Hall
What a great event! My first Winterfest...man where we challenged!!! Be, See, and SHare Jesus...what novel ideas. We must become more missional in our approach to others. My challenge is the same...be Jesus to everyone around you. Seek to make him the number one thing in your life over sports, PS2, TV, your PHONE. Remember, where your treasure is there will your heart be also (Matt. 6:21). It was a great weekend. Adam and I get to hang out with some totally awesome teens! Thanks for making it a great weekend.Love ya'll,

So there are thoughts from those who went on Winterfest who sent them to me.

Away from the subject of Winterfest, things are busy here and I'm really tired of the cold. Cold makes people grumpy, well, at least it makes me grumpy. I need some 80 or 90 degree weather. I wanna go swimming, running, just to spend more than 10 minutes outside w/o my nose going numb.

I'm really looking forward to the Senior Trip. It looks like the cruise fell through, but I found some really good deals on some condos in Florida. I can't wait, it's gonna rock!

Cops and Winterfest

Winterfest 2008 "The Mission"

The trip started out unlike any other trip I've ever gone on. On our way to Stillwater to meet up w/ the other youth group going....I kinda....well.....got pulled over by the HW Patrol. Yes, not my finest moment, but it happened. Freaked some of the kids out a bit too b/c he made me go sit in his car. Part of me was thinking "Great, I can see the headlines now, 'Youth Minister Arrested'." I disagreed w/ why he pulled me over, but he said it was just a warning so I figured, why argue? Let it be known, the elder who was helping me transport kids also got a warning so I'm not alone on this.

From there we made it fine to Stillwater and it was off to Dallas for Winterfest. It was an amazing youth rally. Jeff Walling was the speaker and he did an amazing job sharing God's Word with us. Each of the 4 lessons had a great theme; Know Jesus, Be Jesus, See Jesus, and Share Jesus. We got there too late on Friday to hear Know Jesus, but the three I heard were amazing, so I can only assume the first was amazing as well. Be Jesus went to the point that we should "Be Jesus" to everyone we meet. See Jesus went to the point that we should see Jesus in all that we meet and love them. Share Jesus, well that's pretty obvious, we should share Jesus with all that we meet.

And here after such a great youth rally as always, we have new fire in our hearts, new determination, and increased passion to spread God's Word with our friends. To do all that we can to serve God. I love this feeling, the problem is that it dies way to soon. We go back to school or work and fall back into the same ol' patterns of life. Stick with it!

Top Winterfest Memories
10. "Kyle was mean in bed" Tyler Ford
9. Getting pulled over by the cops
8. The OC Drama Group
7. Surf's Up (it figures Jake would like the hippie chicken)
6. Set your phone's alarm to 3:16
5. Is Tim gonna be 40 or 50?
4. Nicknames in the van
3. Jellybellies are awesome!
2. Getting to know everyone a little better, both Stillwater and Agape Y/G's are awesome
1. Know, Be, See, and Share Jesus!

Long Time No Write

Sorry it's been so long since I wrote y'all. It has been busy, busy, busy. Christmas break was awesome, I got to see a lotta people that I haven't seen in about a year. It was also nice to get some relax time in. I got to see all of my family which was great too. Went to J.R.'s wedding, it was great and I wish him and jenny all the best.

Tomorrow I leave for Dallas for Winterfest, thats going to be a lot of fun. Last year we didn't get to go b/c of ice, but this year God has set good weather before us.

I'm not really gonna go over everything else thats been going on, b/c well, that's more typing than I really wanna do. But I am gonna start keeping up w/ writing on this thing more often.

Take care, say a prayer, and praise God.

peace
adam

Here We Go

Happy December 10th everyone! I've gotta say, things are going good, I can't complain a bit. Things are really starting to come together for me. Life is good. God has been watching out for me that's for sure. It's amazing how much He blesses us with and it's also amazing how little we realize what He's blessed us with. How often have I thanked God for a car, a job, a warm place to sleep, and so on. You know, little things that if you didn't have would be a big deal. So I'm very grateful for those.

But even more so, friends and family. I can't imagine where I'd be w/o the people I have in my life. Yes, it's corny and sappy and I hate being that way, but it's true. I'm not going to go into details on which people have effected me in which way, that'd take way to long. But this is a thank you to all those who have been there for me.

Dumb News of the Week

TAMPA, Fla. - The Florida Highway Patrol says anyone missing two big bags of pot can call their Tampa area office. A crew picking up litter from along Interstate 4 near Tuesday morning made an unusual find: two big plastic garbage bags stuffed with freshly harvested marijuana.
FHP Trooper Larry Coggins says the 60 pounds of pot might be worth around $54,000 on the street. It probably fell off or was thrown from a car on the interstate.
The plants appeared freshly picked and some had intact roots.
Coggins says it's not the largest amount of pot ever dumped along a roadside, but it's certainly not a common find.

Now it's not dumb that they found this, but it makes you wonder how it got there. Did it fly out of the bed of a truck, did they just forget it, or did some druggie wake up to realize that his ticked off girlfriend had tossed out two trash bags of his weed.

The dumb part comes in at the point that you know that someone might be actually dumb enough to try to claim this. Like some already messed up high school or college students, just mark my words, it'll happen.

A Lot of Catching up To Do

It has been a while since I've written anything. It started off as not having anything to write about, then the internet went out, then I got sick, and other stuff. So this post might be a long one.

The spring retreat "Overflow" was awesome. We had some great classes and lessons presented to us by the top youth ministers in Oklahoma. Here at Agape we had a record 16 kids go. It was amazing and I'm glad they all gave it a shot, I don't think they regret it for a second. The only negative part was Tristan getting sick early Sunday morning, like 3 or 4 am early. But luckily Katie Keith came to the rescue, because frankly, I don't think I could have cleaned up after her.

Top 7 of the Retreat

7.Flour Bomb War (props to Silas for the help)
6.The skits
5.Catching up with people I haven't seen in a while
4.Random cabin discussions with Tyler and Eli
3.Ultimate Human Foozeball
2.Over 100 penalties called
1.Seeing the teens enjoy learning about God's Word

This also was my first ever Thanksgiving away from my family. It was weird being away from them. But I was very grateful to the Holder family for inviting me to their Thanksgiving dinner and treating me like a member of the family.

On the weather front: IT'S FRICKIN' COLD!

On the sports front: I would really, really, REALLY, like to have a sports team that does good. The Titans are seriously irritating me. In the last three games we've gone from #2 in defense to #17. (all losses) We can't catch a pass, we just can't seem to win. If we don't make the playoffs, chances are I'm going to break something.
As for Vandy, well I should have known better to get my hopes up. This has happened to me every year since....well....since I was born. We cannot get 6 wins, it's impossible. We could have 5 wins with one game to go and lose to a Jr. High team. I will say we can beat any team in college football for 3 quarters, but since their are 4 it doesn't work out so well for us.

Tim Tebow for Heisman, the only person who can come close to maybe deserving it is Missouri's QB. No one else has been as consistant. If you disagree, I'm sorry, you're wrong.

Weird News of the Week-Dubble Bubble BOMB!

Before this gets started, let me say, I'm in full support of doing what we need to do to stop terrorists before they attack. Need to tap my phone, go ahead, I'm not doing anything wrong, all you'll hear is me talking to friends about whats up this weekend, telling youth group members what's going on, and telling family members for the 1000th time when I'm coming home.
Want to check me six times at the airport for a possible bomb on me, go ahead. I'm willing to spend an extra hour or two in line to keep from getting blown up. And if it frustrates you, well, I don't really care. I personally have grown fond of not having my body exploded into pieces.
However this next story is a bit extreme.
Government in Action!
Three aldermen in Dover, N.J., seem exceptionally apprehensive that the town's gumball machines are easy targets for terrorists to poison their community and have been studying the issue zealously since April. The aldermen have checked all 800 gumball machines in the town of 18,000, gotten rid of the 100 that were unlicensed, and will report to the mayor by Jan. 1 on the town's vulnerability. (The mayor has been mildly supportive of the project, as contrasted with the police chief, who said, "You'd probably win the lottery first" before being victimized by terrorists' gumballs.)
Are you kidding me, terrorist targeting our gumballs? These guys can't be serious. Can you imagine the terrorists meeting there.
Osama: they're guarding their airports like crazy, we can't get anyone in.
Abdul: and they're tapping everyones phones so we can't communicate to get something big going!
Osama: I know, let's go after their gumball machines, especially the ones in Dover N.J.!
Abdul:Where?

If these actually happened Osama obviously didn't count on the aldermen of Dover N.J. They are real American heroes, that or 3 guys with way to much time on their hands.

Weekend Review

Another enjoyable weekend. Friday night went down to Edmond. (always nice to get a break from Ponca City) There I went to eat dinner with some friends at "Flat Tire Burger". Not a bad place. Then off to meet some people for a concert at OC. The groups name was Ingram Hill, they started out pretty rough but they got better. Then it was off to Steak -N- Shake. I gotta say, I love that place. It was a fun time Friday night for sure.

Saturday, well, Saturday was a typical day in Ponca, nothing much at all.

Sunday started off good, but dang it, the Titans lost. My day reflects on how the Titans do. If they win, the worst day is made better. If they lose, well you can ask my college friends how I responded if the Titans lost.

Random Stuff

I was on Oak's (brother from college) and I saw the link he has to my blog. It's titled "Ninja Assasin Youth Minister". I liked it, it made me laugh.

I def. enjoy having someone else in the office now. It's good to have someone with more experience to relay stuff off of and if I have Biblical questions he's a good guy to go to.

I thought I had gotten away from jokes on Vandy, but the new preacher is an SEC guy too, the jokes are back. I'm not as used to them as I once was.

It can't believe it's November already, it seems the older you get the faster things move by.

I read a story this morning on the Yahoo News line. Seems a cow in Washington jumped off a cliff and landed on a couple driving their car. That would be quiet a story. "So we were just driving along, enjoying the scenary and a cow fell from 200ft onto the front of our car." Who would believe that and do you have "cow jumping off a cliff onto your car" insurance, I'm thinking you probably don't.

I Feel Like A Parent

I feel like a parent, at least, I think I do, I guess I won't really know for sure until I am actually a parent for real. (which is a looooong way away) But I feel like a parent to these kids in the youth group. I love these kids, they're awesome, yet frustrating at the same time. I don't think they fully realize how much I care if they succeed or fail. I don't think if they'll realize that why their in the youth group, just like I didn't realize what my parents did was for my good until I was out of the house. It wasn't until I started working with youth groups until I really understood what my parents meant when they said, "I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed." I don't get mad at them a lot, I just get disappointed when I see poor choices made. But at the same time I love it when I see them happy, when they succeed, when I see God working in their lives and I see them working to make God a stronger influence in theirs.

A Video

I just got done watching a video by Rob Bell called "Today". It's part of his Nooma series. Good video overall. He talks about living in the day and talks about people who look back on their lives and talk about college or highschool as the best days of their lives and how one shouldn't do that. Now I can see good and bad in this. I loved college, college was awesome and yes, so far I do consider those the best days of my life. College was where I discovered who I was, where I met my best friends ever. I have amazing memories from that. In fact, I'm going to do a quick top 10 list of college memories, here we go.
THESE ARE NOT IN ORDER
10. Jeremy Dennis on a scooter slamming full speed, head first into the RA's door.
9. Poker Nights (I'm tired, I think I'll go to bed....I'm all in)
8. Pig or Horse games (my jump of the bed*only shot i could really do*, Jeff's bouncing skills, and josh about killing himself)
7. Great quotes "I'm my own personal hero", "I've tried to deny it, but dang I'm good looking",ones from Jeff that are to numerous to state
6. Intramural and club flag football
5. Roller Skating!!!!
4. Boxing in the hallways
3. GTOSC
2. When we all played board games
1. The Gang (That is #1)

I feel that saying something was the best time in your life is ok, as long as you don't think anything can ever compare to it, b/c if you think that, then nothing will ever compare to it. Life will be full of ups and downs, good and bad, Titans and Patriots (titans=good;pats=bad). Live each moment for what it's worth and make the best of it!

Cell Phones

I wonder what would happen if we treated our Bible like we treat our cell phone?
What if we carried it around in our purses or pockets?
What if we flipped through it several time a day?
What if we turned back to go get it if we forgot it?
What if we used it to receive messages from the text?
What if we treated it like we couldn't live without it?
What if we gave it to Kids as gifts?
What if we used it when we traveled?
What if we used it in case of emergency?
This is something to make you go ... hmm, where is my Bible?Oh, and one more thing. Unlike our cell phone, we don't have to worry about our Bible being disconnected because Jesus already paid the bill.Makes you stop and think 'where are my priorities?And no dropped calls!

Weekend Review

It's time for a little weekend review, however, I'm gonna skip Friday b/c....well....Friday was boring. Saturday was spent in various places, in the office watching the Nooma video for Sunday's class. (if you've never seen a Nooma video by Rob Bell def. check 'em out) Saturday night went over to Hartford to help out with their Trunk-or-Treat. (we woulda had one but they have a much better location for one than us) It was a nice set up, lots of little dudes showed up to get their fair share of candy. It's a great ministry opportunity to offer up a safe and fun place for kids to trick-or-treat.
Sunday Sunday Sunday! Sunday was the Mustangs' (the 6th-8th grade team I coach) bowl game. The defense came on strong keeping the Steelers in negative yardage in the first half, we were sacking the QB like crazy and stopping them in the backfield like they were nothing. Our offense came in with some great plays running it in from 5 yards for a TD after a blocked punt. The next TD came from a 40 yard pass with a little misdirection thrown in. At the half it was 14-0.
The 2nd half the other team came in with guns blazing. They knew they had to pick it up. After a few good runs around our right side they scored making the score 14-6. Their defense came in hard nosed and kept us from scoring the 2nd half. It became a defensive battle and we kept them from scoring anymore ending the game the our Mustangs winning 14-6! Finishing the season w/ an awesome record of 7-2!
Sunday evening was Agape's Annual Fall Fest. A great evening of volleyball, football, s'mores, singing, and just good ol' fellowship with each other.

Adam's Top 10 of the Fall Fest
10. Me, "It's just about having fun" Kyle, "That doesn't sound like you at all." When talking about the volleyball
9. The little dudes in their costumes
8. The volleyball that just wouldn't go straight
7. Marilyn Jantz's version of "Clap Your Hands"
6. S'mores
5. The Titans beat Oakland (I know that didn't happen at Fall Fest, I'm just happy about it!)
4. "Just give it a little effort!"
3. Watching the kiddos bob for apples
2. Singing around the fire
1. Fellowshipping with friends and fellow Christians

Good News

Well good news, my pappy is gonna be alright. He had a minor blood clot they are fixing w/ meds and low grade diabetes which they can also fix w/ meds. So he's all good. So thank you God for helping him.

A New Era For Agape

Tomorrow begins a new era for Agape church of Christ. Tomorrow our new preacher arrives. That means no more being the only one in the office, which should be a good thing. It'll be nice to have someone discuss stuff with, please the church will have a real preacher and not me up there. He'll do a much better job preaching than me. I've always been more of a discussion class type of guy rather than a preacher.

A Special Post

This next topic deserves it's own seperate post. Yesterday I recieved knews that my Pappy (grandfather) had gone to the hospital. Chest pains and such, they've ruled out a heart-attack but they have him on blood thinners for a possible blood clot. He's 82 and still the toughest guy I know. If anyone can get through this it's him, but please pray for him.